Margaret Thatcher in ’stable’ condition in hospital

(Lead) DPA London, March 8 (DPA) Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, 82, who was taken to hospital Friday night for tests and observation, was expected to be released from hospital Saturday, a spokesman for St Thomas’ Hospital in London said. Tests had shown nothing more serious than a fainting episode, British press reported.

“She will go home and have a few nice, restful days,” the hospital spokesman said.

“Things are not too bad,” Charles Moore, a biographer of Lady Thatcher, told BBC Radio 4’s Today Programme. “I’ve just spoken to some people close to her, and I think what seems to have happened, Lady Thatcher is susceptible to heat and it sometimes gives her - and it does sometimes with old people - a turn.”

The former British leader was driven from her home by car Friday night to the hospital in central London, Conservative Party officials said.

Known as Britain’s “Iron Lady” during her time as prime minister from 1979 to 1990, Lady Thatcher suffered a series of strokes in 2003, and her doctors forbade her from making any public speeches.

Thatcher’s public silence has only been interrupted by such rare occasions as her 80th birthday celebration in 2005, which was seen as her last grand farewell in the public eye.

Her health has recently been frail, and she is alleged to have been suffering from short-term memory loss. Past reports have said she may have Alzheimer’s disease, requiring constant attention of a nurse.

The death of Thatcher’s husband and loyal companion, Denis, in 2003, came as a severe blow, as did the sentencing by a South African court in 2005 of her son, Mark, for involvement in an arms running scandal and planned coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea. DPA